Another Chance
by Bryan Greenberg
Summary: Graham Sullivan convinces Rory to give him another chance after their disastrous date. ONESHOT


Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

**Another Chance**

Rory grumbled as she maneuvered around the boxes of her packed dorm room toward the door where someone was knocking. She was tired and grouchy from the evening before. The terrible set up combined with Jess coming and begging her to run away with him had assured a stressful and unpleasant night. Plus, she had a feeling that Dean wanted to start something up with her again, and she didn't want him to destroy his marriage when she didn't even want to be with him.

She pulled the door open and glared at the man standing on the other side. He was the second to last person she wanted to see right now, directly following Jess.

"I'm an ass," Graham stated, "And the biggest idiot in the world."

Rory sighed and stepped back, grudgingly letting him enter the room. "What happened to your face?" she asked, gesturing at the various scrapes and cuts surrounding a large cut."

"Car accident," he said sheepishly, "You were very, very right last night. Hence the me being an idiot part."

Rory can't help but laugh, but she quickly reached up and covered her mouth. "Sorry," she said, "It's not really funny."

He gave her a wry smile. "It's a little funny," he admitted.

"So," Rory said, pulling her sleeves over her hands, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize," he said, "I was a total jackass last night. I was hoping maybe I could make it up to you, and maybe you'd give me another chance?"

Rory bit her lip pensively. "I don't know," she said, hesitantly.

"I'm really not such a bad guy," he said, "I was just so bitter about my mother setting me up again that I didn't realize that maybe for once she had chosen someone I'd actually like."

Rory looked at him, having a debate in her head. "How do you feel about manual labor?" she asked, coming to a conclusion.

He gave her a weird look and said, "Ok, interesting subject change."

"Not a subject change," Rory explained, "I'm planning your punishment. So, how do you feel about manual labor? Do your box carrying skills rival your box taping skills?"

"They do, in fact," Graham said with a laugh.

"Good," she said, "Then you can help me move my stuff home."

"Ok," he said, going over to a box and beginning to pick it up.

"Not that one," Rory said, "That one's light. Start with the books." She gestured to the several boxes labeled 'books' and went and picked up the one he was originally going to take.

When all of the boxes had been moved to Rory's car, she turned to Graham and smiled.

"So," he said, "Do you want me to follow you to your house in my car or should I just ride with you?"

"Oh, you don't have to help on the other end," Rory said, "I can manage."

"Of course I do," Graham insisted, "Carrying a few boxes to your car doesn't come anywhere near making up for what an ass I was last night."

"That's true," Rory said, "Ok, then you can just ride with me. I'll drive you back later. But first, I need coffee."

Fifteen minutes later, they were getting into the car to drive to Star's Hollow, and Rory was happily caffeinating.

"So," Rory said as she began driving, "Tell me about yourself. I need to decide if you're worth giving another chance once you've finished with your penance."

"You're hard work," he stated.

"But totally worth it," she told him with a grin.

"I believe you," Graham assured her, "So what do you want to know?"

"Major?" she asked.

"Business," he replied.

"Boring," she said.

"It was required," he explained, "Gotta be able to run the family business. God forbid I have my own interests and goals."

"You broke the one word conversation game," Rory pouted, "But I accept your explanation for your boring major."

"I'm so relieved," he said sarcastically, "So, what else?"

"Favorite movie?" she inquired.

"That's a tough one," he said, "Anything Monty Python is always good. And the Marx Brothers, _Animal Crackers _especially."

"Impressive," Rory said, glancing over at him. He could see a glint of interest in her eyes. He was relieved that he seemed to be passing what he realized was a test fairly well. "Favorite book?" she continued her questioning.

"_Jitterbug Perfume_," he stated without hesitation.

"Tom Robbins," she said, "Nice. The beet is a very intense vegetable."

He laughed. "That it is," he said.

"You didn't get to a point in the middle of that book where you were like 'Enough with the philosophizing already!'?"

"Nope," he said, "That was what the book was about. You can't write a book about living forever without a little philosophizing."

"It was just so pretentious," Rory said, but she was smiling. She loved having a guy she could argue about books with. That was the only thing she had really missed about Jess.

He just shrugged and smiled at her. "I have a feeling this isn't something we're going to agree about," he said, "So let's move on. Ramones."

"Excuse me?" she said.

"My favorite band," he explained.

"That's it," Rory said, "Someone is feeding you answers. There's just no way."

"You're thinking a little Cyrano de Bergerac situation?" he teased, "Some perfect but ugly guy is using me for my stunning good looks?"

"You don't think highly of yourself at all," she stated drolly.

"Why bother with false modesty?" he joked.

"I'm going to ignore that nauseating display of egotism and move on to the next question," Rory told him, "And this one is important. True or false: Coffee is the source of all things good and without it life is not worth living."

Graham laughed. "I have a feeling the right answer to that question is true," he said, "I like coffee, but I'm not having a love affair with it."

"Your loss," Rory said with a shrug as she pulled into her driveway, "We're here."

As the two opened their doors to get out of the car, a slightly manic Lorelai came sprinting out of the house. "Daughter!" she exclaimed with excitement, throwing her arms around Rory, "You're not going back to school next year. I'm keeping you here."

"Who needs school," Rory said, "I can join the troubadour. We can form a duo and stun the town with our lyrical genius."

"You're going to sing if I keep you here?" Lorelai inquired, "Because really, you should stay in school. Be cool, Rory."

Graham looked on in amusement as the mother and daughter talked. It didn't matter that he wasn't entirely certain what they were talking about. He watched silently wondering if he was going to be acknowledged. It was about five minutes into a stream of consciousness conversation that Virginia Wolfe would have been envious of before that happened.

Lorelai suddenly looked at him and realized she didn't know who he was. "Who's the boy?" she asked, cutting Rory off in the middle of a rant, "Do you have a new boyfriend that you've been hiding from Mommy? You know how upset I get when you hold out on me."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Mom, this is Graham Sullivan. Graham, this is my mother Lorelai," she introduced formally.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lorelai," Graham said, holding his hand out meaning to shake hers.

Lorelai looked at his outstretched hand and then back at him. "You know my mother," she accused, "You have to. You're way too polite."

"A concept that's clearly lost on you," Rory scolded her mother.

"I do know Emily," Graham admitted reluctantly, "That's actually how I met Rory. She schemed with my mother to set us up."

"That really didn't get you any points, kid," Lorelai told him.

"Be nice mom," Rory said, "He's the pretty face for my perfect man. If you scare him away then he won't tell me where to find him."

"Rory," Lorelai said, "Your perfect man has his own pretty face."

"Don't be shallow, Mother," Rory said. She turned to Graham and said, "Grab a box, and I'll show you where my room is."

"You got the boy to do your manual labor?" Lorelai asked, following the other two.

"It's his punishment for being a bad date," Rory explained, "That and the large amount of food I charged to his tab last night after he left the bar."

Graham let out a laugh. "You didn't tell me that before," he said.

Rory shrugged innocently. "A girl's gotta eat," she said sweetly.

When they had finished unpacking all the boxes, Lorelai offered to buy everyone dinner. Rory wanted to change her clothes first, so Lorelai went ahead to Luke's so she could order and the food would get there quicker. The Gilmore girls would soon be approaching crabbiness due to hunger.

Rory changed quickly and hurried out of her room with her shoes untied. Her inner klutz took over and it was inevitable that she trip and fall. Luckily Graham was close by and he caught her before she stumbled to the floor.

He helped her get her footing back, but he kept his hold on her waist, looking into her eyes. He leaned forward and their lips met in a sweet and soft kiss. When Rory pulled away she looked into his eyes and offered him a little smile.

"I hope you're not averse to more manual labor to finish off your punishment," she said when she trusted her voice to speak again, "My mom's inn is having a test run the day after tomorrow and I'm sure we can find something for you to do."

END

AN- I watched Veronica Mars for the first time last Tuesday and I've been wanting to write a Graham story ever since because the actor who plays him is in Veronica Mars and I noticed how cute he is. I hope you like it despite the abnormal pairing.


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